The Last Dog And Pony Show.

It's Always A Blast ...... when the circus comes back to town. We're just suckers for the calliope music and the smell of sawdust and greasepaint. We love settling down in the front row, overpriced beers and popcorn in hand, to be amused and, perhaps, a little deceived by the antics of the clowns, acrobats and sword-swallowers.

So, naturally, we're over the moon to find out that the joint House and Senate Conference Committee will meet once again this morning to try to hammer out a compromise on Pennsylvania's weeks-late state budget. The last outing was so fun, so full of Telenovela-style melodrama, that it's hard to imagine how this new round will live up to the high bar set by its predecessor.

That said, we're incurable optimists, and have every hope that the 10 a.m. session will be as entertaining as the last. And, who knows, somewhere in the middle of the chest-puffing and mindless posturing, some policy-making might even be accomplished.

And, if not, we'll at least have been treated to the illusion that this has taken place.

The rest of today's news starts, as always, after the jump.

With Little Else Going On ...
... during a sleepy Monday, the Guv pretty much won the news cycle with a late-afternoon press conference announcing he'd dropped the so-called "severance tax" on natural gas drilling from his list of revenue raisers.
The announcement made the pages of The Inky, The Tribune-Review and the Times-Tribune of Scranton.
The Post-Gazette and Patriot-News, meanwhile, stay focused on the minutiae of the budget debate (including Rendell's call for a budget resolution within weeks) and his tax- and spending-plans.
More astute readers will recall that we brought you the highlights of this story yesterday afternoon.

This One's Of Local Interest ...Harrisburg Mayor Steve Reed, who lost a Democratic primary in May to challenger Linda Thompson, says he's giving serious thought to mounting a write-in candidacy for this fall's general election.
The 27-year incumbent met with supporters last night at the Midtown Arts Center in the city, where he told them he'd announce his plans after this weekend's annual Kipona Festival along the banks of the Susquehanna River.
"I made it clear [to supporters] that I would be honored to continue my service to the city. It's been my entire life. But I made it clear it would be my last term as mayor," Reed tells the Patriot-News this morning.

What Goes On.Auditor General (and sorta Democratic gubernatorial candidate) Jack Wagner holds an 11 a.m. newser in his Finance Building offices to talk budget. Assuming you can tear yourselves away from the conference committee, this could be entertaining.
And at noon, the folks from Democracy Rising will announce a challenge to Legislative Initiative Grants (ie: WAMs) in the Capitol Rotunda.

EdWatch (TM):Gov. Ed makes it easy for us -- no public schedule (until he inevitably changes his mind and decides to comment on the conference committee later today).

On The Capitol Ideas iPod This Morning.
Here's just the sort of music you need to get you going on a Tuesday morning. It's ska legends The Specials covering Rico's equally legendary "Sea Cruise." Play this one loud and maybe dance in your seat a bit.

Tuesday's Gratuitous Soccer Link.
Today's the last day of the summer transfer period, so you can thrill to the final minute-by-minute action as England's finest football teams scramble to secure the players they hope will cement their plans for the 2009-2010 season. The Guardian has it all.

That's it for now. We'll be offering Tweet-by-Tweet coverage of this morning's conference committee meeting. You can register on our Twitter page. We'll be back later today with even more.